Barag-Bromel
In ancient times, before the First Incursion of Kaos, there were three races of the stout folk. The Ædar were created by Fergus, god of craftsmen, for the forging of iron and working of stone. He created a smaller, nimbler race called Rock Gnomes for the cutting of gems and the smelting of precious metals. Finally, he created the learned Derro for the weaving of magic into the material works of the other races. But the stout folk had been cursed with a greed for the very reasons of their creation. And while the Ædar burrowed for iron and hard-metal ores and the Rock Gnomes for their gems and precious metals, the Derro sought eldritch power, which could not be easily found beneath the earth. And so they dug in vain, deeper and deeper into the earth. Then, one fateful day, the found exactly what they were looking for... and it looked back at them. Driven mad by the arcane and demonic forces they discovered deep below the mountains, and driven to evil acts by the whispers in the dark, the Derro ascended from the depths. They first sought to corrupt their smaller, physically-weaker cousins. Tempting the Rock Gnomes with stories of gems and gold, they lured them into the depths, where they too were introduced to the denizens below. The Rock Gnomes reacted much differently than the Derro, however. Rather than revering and embracing the madness, the Rock Gnomes fled from it. And in their fear, the magical energies twisted their bodies and corrupted their forms. Horrified by what they had become, the creatures fled from the tunnels of the stout folk onto the plains of the humans... and over time, their minds fell to the darkness of the depths and they truly lost who they were, and the race of goblins was born. Millennia later, an Ædar cleric of Fergus named Brom -- a member of the Blackbriar Company -- discovered the secret history of the Gnomes after freeing a tribe of goblins who had begun to turn from their evil ways from their ogre overlords. Brom and company later discovered a series of long-forgotten dwarven tunnels and an ancient forge-temple of Fergus. After clearing out the Derro and their demonic masters, the company sent for the goblin tribe they had freed but were surprised to receive not a few dozen goblins in response, but over a thousand! Word had spread of the company's willingness to help the enslaved goblins, and especially of the power and wisdom of Brom, cleric of Fergus. As the story spread, some goblins had begun to turn away from their tribes and move towards worship of Fergus themselves... a small part of a larger plan put into motion by the forge god himself. When these strange goblins arrived in the once-lost forge-temple, Brom was inspired to perform an ancient rite in the name of Fergus... a ritual that restored the assembled goblins to their ancient gnomish forms. Slowly losing the memory of their lives as goblins, these reborn Rock Gnomes settled into the ancient tunnels to protect the forge-temple that restored their lives. They named their new settlement Bromel in honor of the Ædar that delievered them from their "imprisonment." As the race grew in number, they spread out through the tunnels, founding other settlements such as Opal in the north and Beryl to the south. Nevertheless, the gnomish population remains small compared to most of the allied races, and they remain an uncommon sight outside of the northern reaches of Ceilar. Of all the civilized nations of Ceilar, the cities of Barag-Bromel (BAHR ahg BROM el) are perhaps the most homogenous. Aside from some Ædar, very few non-gnomes call Barag-Bromel their permanent home. That is not to say that Rock Gnomes are xenophobic -- in fact, they get along with pretty much anyone -- it's just that the location doesn't much appeal to the surface races... and living among a race as quirky as the Rock Gnomes can require can a special degree of patience. Despite that, however, Barag-Bromel finds itself with an abundance of allies. Thanks to their inclusion in the Alliance of Stone, the Gnome race found a lot of built-in allies in the humans, halflings, and Sidh of the world. Through the centuries, they have proven their value in commerce and conflicts, and have established themselves as equals in the eyes of the surface races. Those alliances remain strong, despite the retreat of their Ædar cousins, as the Gnomes are fast to forgive and forget and truly suffered very little consequence of the fallen archangel's war during the Third Incursion of Kaos. The Gnomes also inherited some enemies in addition to those they brought back with them from their cursed state. The Derro remain a constant thorn in the side of the Gnomes, and some fragment of racial memory between the goblins and the Gnomes has provoked many conflicts between those two races. In addition to those, Barag-Bromel has assisted both humans and dwarves in a number of conflicts, making enemies of the Imperial Rakasta, the orcs, and most recently the gnolls and trolls of the Gnollwood. Category:Locations Category:Gazeteer